Resh

Origins

Resh is usually assumed to mean head, as in Proto-Semitic *raʾ(i)š- and descendants, like Biblical Hebrew רֹאשׁ (rosh) 'head'. D1

Arabic rāʾ

The letter is named ar راء in Arabic. It is written in several ways depending on its position in the word:

It ranges between an alveolar trill , an alveolar flap , and a uvular trill (the last of which is only found in a few modern varieties). It is pronounced as a postalveolar approximant [ɹ̠] in the traditional dialect of Fes.

Derived letter in other languages

The Unicode standard for Arabic scripts also lists a variant with a full stroke (Unicode character U+075b: ݛ), suggesting that this form is used in certain Northern and Western African languages and some dialects in Pakistan.

In the Pashto alphabet, a variant of the letter rāʾ uses a ring below for the retroflex consonant and another uses dots above and below the tail for the voiced fricative or :

Hebrew resh

Hebrew spelling: רֵישׁ

In Hebrew, Resh () represents a rhotic consonant that has different realizations for different dialects:

• In Modern Hebrew, the most common pronunciation is the voiced uvular fricative .
• Ashkenazi use sometimes a uvular trill or an alveolar trill . Native English-speakers replace it sometimes with an alveolar approximant , as in English.
• Sephardic and Mizrahi use an alveolar trill , an alveolar flap or uvular trill .

As a general rule, Resh, along with Ayin, Aleph, He, and Het, do not receive a dagesh. There are a handful of exceptions to this rule.Book Em laMikra haShalem written by Nisan Sharoni In Chapter 14:7 page 62 of the Ashdod. ספר אם למקרא השׁלם על

ידי ניסן שׁרוני ׀ אשׁדוֹד ׀ תשׁס״א ׀ עמוד

62

In the 7 article of the chapter, the Rav says that the letters ״אהחער״ generally do not take a dagesh.

₪ בּאוֹתיוֹת ״אהחער״ ־לֹא יָבֹא דָגֵשׁ, בְּדֶרֶךְ כְּלָל. ₪ מכלול נז

In the footnote 6 — Not to write it in Hebrew — ; it says: Except in a few cases where there is an exception to the rule… dagesh can be seen in Alef and Reish. See Mesorah haGedolah 43:26 and מכלול נז Minchas Shai 43:26. In the Yemenite tradition, Resh is treated as most other consonants in that it can receive a dagesh hazak under certain circumstances. In the most widely accepted version of the Hebrew Bible, there are 17 instances of Resh being marked with a dagesh. The list is: 1 Samuel 1:6, 1 Samuel 10:24, 1 Samuel 17:25, 2 Kings 6:32, Jeremiah 39:12, Ezekiel 16:4 [×2], Habakkuk 3:13, Psalms 52:5, Proverbs 3:8, Proverbs 11:21, Proverbs 14:10, Proverbs 15:1, Job 39:9 (?), Song of Songs 5:2, Ezra 9:6, 2 Chronicles 26:10 (?)

In gematria, Resh represents the number 200.

As abbreviation

Resh as an abbreviation can stand for Rabbi (or Rav, Rebbe, Rabban, Rabbenu, and other similar constructions).

Resh may be found after a person's name on a gravestone, either to indicate that the person was a rabbi or to indicate Rav, a generic term for a teacher or a personal spiritual guide.

Syriac resh

Character encodings

|05E8|name1=Hebrew Letter Resh |0631|name2=Arabic Letter Ra |072A|name3=Syriac Letter Rish |0813|name4=Samaritan Letter Rish

|10397|name1=Ugaritic Letter Rasha |10853|name2=Imperial Aramaic Letter Resh |10913|name3=Phoenician Letter Rosh

References

References

1. Schenker, Alexander M.. (1995). "The Dawn of Slavic: An Introduction to Slavic Philology". [[Yale University Press]].
2. "Strong's Hebrew: 7218. רֹאשׁ (rosh) -- head".
3. Hachimi, Atiqa. (2012-05-23). "The urban and the urbane: Identities, language ideologies, and Arabic dialects in Morocco". Language in Society.
4. "The Unicode Standard, Version 6.2". Unicode Consortium.
5. "Unexpected Dagesh in Reish".
6. "Tanach Simanim (Hebrew Only)".
7. "Tanach Simanim (Hebrew Only)".